Bruce Enberg: It takes a sharp wooden stake

Thursday, 22 May 2014 21:11

The new unemployment claims reported on last week were at a seven year low, the report for this week is up again close to the moving average, but overall it's not bad news for the economy. We will probably see more people leaving the workforce now that they don't need to stay with the company that provides them health insurance, and this should be reflected in a falling unemployment rate.

Worker mobility should improve from this 'portability' aspect of ObamaCare, and this could result in fewer people being laid off since workers are able leave a company for another job rather than hanging on until the ax falls.

In theory, we should see an upturn in people creating their own business since they don't need to worry about finding health insurance. There is, however, the problem that if a person is a college graduate her or she is likely be carrying a large student debt load and this hampers entrepreneurship. Unless you simply take Mitt Romney's advice and borrow the money from your father to get started, - it worked great for him.

The more than one trillion dollars in student debt is also overhanging the housing market. It used to be that you could count on college graduates in their twenties to buy houses, but even if you aren't working at Best Buy with your engineering degree you're still screwed. Banks are requiring a mountain of paper work, a large down payment and a cash reserve in the bank. The fact that your student loan would be enough to buy a modest house doesn't really work for you, or for the economy.